Review: Falling Into Place

Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release Date: September 9th, 2014
Source: Library
Date Read: 11/28/14 to 11/30/14
304 Pages
Rating: ✰✰✰✰

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.

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I started the beginning of this two days ago, and then completely breezed through the rest of it this morning, which was about 250 pages. 

Falling Into Place is a very fast read, but it deals with the heavy topic of suicide. The chapters hop between different time periods, from before Liz crashes her Mercedes to after and then before again. For example, one chapter will be titled "50 minutes before", while another would say "one day after". 

I loved the execution of the novel as a whole. Usually I'm not a fan of books that jump from here to there and everywhere, but it worked in this case. Also, the unknown narrator. Who is this unknown narrator?? It reminded me of Death from The Book Thief, but with less of a personality. Anyways, the narration made it so that I, the reader, was looking over the whole situation.

As a character, Liz was extremely well-developed. I can't say that I liked her, because throughout the novel she's depicted as a bully. But this was only on the surface. On the inside, she regretted everything she did when it ended up hurting others, although this brings up the question of "Why did she do it in the first place?" Because honestly, some of the things she plans with her friends are downright cruel. 

But Liz isn't that sort of person. She just does these things because I don't know. Which is why she fakes a car accident to cover up her suicide, because she's hurt so many people. 

Surprisingly, I was emotional at the end. I thought I wouldn't be, because of the person Liz was, but IT HAPPENED. I just had tears spilling down my cheeks for some reason. It just felt like I was in the waiting room with everyone, waiting to hear the results. Also, that epilogue is really moving, just saying. It wasn't even long or anything, just powerful in its own way.

So to sum up, I picked up Falling into Place on a whim, and I ended up being extremely moved by it. I'm a huge hater of bullying and how it's handled at schools, because as Liz says in the novel, those anti-bullying campaigns don't work. This hasn't happened to me personally, but in my opinion I think students and children will never speak up when they're bullied, because they're afraid of the teachers not caring, or just getting into trouble. I'm really glad I've never gotten bullied, but just reading about it makes me feel sick.

IT WAS A GREAT BOOK. But I don't recommend it to anyone who dislikes reading about bullying. 

Review: Second Star

Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Release Date: May 13th, 2014

A twisty story about love, loss, and lies, this contemporary oceanside adventure is tinged with a touch of dark magic as it follows seventeen-year-old Wendy Darling on a search for her missing surfer brothers. Wendy’s journey leads her to a mysterious hidden cove inhabited by a tribe of young renegade surfers, most of them runaways like her brothers.

Wendy is instantly drawn to the cove’s charismatic leader, Pete, but her search also points her toward Pete's nemesis, the drug-dealing Jas. Enigmatic, dangerous, and handsome, Jas pulls Wendy in even as she's falling hard for Pete. A radical reinvention of a classic, Second Star is an irresistible summer romance about two young men who have yet to grow up--and the troubled beauty trapped between them.

Taken from Goodreads

Start: 4/21/2014 | End: 4/23/2014 | Pages: 248 | Rating: 1.5 Stars 

My Thoughts:

I received this eARC from Netgalley. 

There are a lot of things I want to discuss about Second Star, and it being good is not one of them. The book's only 250 pages, and I never ever want to hear about surfing again. Before I "dive" into my review, I'm just going to list how many times these words popped up.

Surfer: 63 times
Ocean: 93 times
Beach: 175 times
Wave: 287 times!!!

This means that the word "wave" or "waves" appeared more than once on every page of this book. Like really? Can't you see how sick and tired I am of these words!

So here's the plot, and yes surprisingly there is one. Wendy is under the assumption that her brothers John and Michael, are out there somewhere catching the next big wave. Her parents, and everyone else, think they are dead. But instead of listening to them, Wendy travels to different beaches to look, one of them being Kensington. This is where she meets Pete.

Wendy spends most of her time at Kensington, trying to question the boys living there on whether they ever met her brothers. And she also meets Jas, the other surfer on the other side of the beach. 

She pretty much has a grand old time.

First off, I just want to say that Second Star is not realistic at all. Or maybe it is? Do parents let you go on a road trip all of a sudden without questioning you further? Do they not worry about you when you're gone for a good month? Are houses just randomly abandoned for teens to just occupy? And WHY IS EVERYONE IN THIS NOVEL SO SMART??

And also, after two pages into the book, I started laughing out loud at this line:  

'Surfers,' I whisper without meaning to.

Oh man. This is when you know you're in for a bad time. This really makes it seem like surfers are the worst people in the world. And also that Wendy hates them, which doesn't make any sense because a couple chapters later she's hanging out with them casually without a second thought.

I think this book would've been much better off in the third person. Second star is filled with Wendy's useless thoughts. Honestly I wanted to bash her on the head throughout the book. I absolutely hate idiot characters who don't know how to make decisions. Halfway through the novel, Wendy and Jas visit a creepy bar in order to question the people inside to see if they knew either Michael or John, and what does she do??? She immediately talks to the creepiest guy in the room. And then he comes after her and even follows her back to the car! I know you want to be brave, and I applaud yourself for that, but I'm not sure if that's the first guy you should've talked to.

The only reason why I'm giving Second Star at least 1 star is because there is resemblance between the real Peter Pan and this story, and I don't mean just the names. That was pretty much the only creative aspect though.

Yep. So basically, I personally don't recommend Second Star, but I bet some people will like it, especially if you like beaches and surfers and the west coast. But me, I didn't care about a thing in this book. Not the characters, the plot, nothing. I do not pity Wendy one bit.

For anyone else that has this book on their TBR list, I hope I didn't ruin anything for you! And thanks for reading my review/rant haha. But as you can see, I did not enjoy it.

✰1/2

Review: Attachments

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Release Date: April 14th, 2011

"Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . "

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ?

Taken from Goodreads

Start: 3/5/2014 | End: 3/5/2014 | Pages: 336 | Rating: 3.5 Stars

My Thoughts:

I picked up Attachments because it's by Rainbow Rowell, and I had read Fangirl previously and fell in love with it. Basically I came into this book with high expectations, when I really shouldn't have. After recently finishing up the second book in the series of Daughter of Smoke & Bone, a highly intense book full of action, Attachments went down a completely different path. 

Don't get me wrong, I love Rowell's writing, especially Beth and Jennifer's email messages. But I have to admit that this book started off a little slow. Lincoln, the IT guy at the The Courier, has the job of going through everyone's emails and internet searches for inappropriate behavior. Every time a flag word pops up, it gets sent to Webfence, a filter for the internet. Then he has to read or see what the person has been up to, whether it's gossip or porn, and send them a warning. Everyone is afraid of Lincoln, because of his job, and even he's getting tired of being paid to do nothing. Until, he finds himself being entertained by the email conversations of two column writers, Jennifer and Beth.

Jennifer and Beth talk about everything, literally, especially about their husbands and their love lives. If it wasn't for Rowell's incredible ability to put together words and sentences, I would have scrapped this book already. 70 pages in, and I'm still waiting for something to actually happen. I think this is my punishment for just rambling on my review of Days of Blood & Starlight. Oh well. 

I finished Attachments in one day, because I became so frustrated with Lincoln and Beth never meeting. And that's why I have mixed feelings about this book, because it was well-written and had good characters, but the frustration was just, overbearing. The story really dragged out. I wish I got to see more of the dating aspect of the relationship too, because Rowell just ended the story when they finally found each other. I know the theme was "falling in love with the idea of a person", but I don't think it worked for me.

Overall, don't read this book if you want action in your stories. Attachments also is somewhat similar to Meg Cabot's The Boy Next Door, but not nearly as good. 

Review: And the Mountains Echoed

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Housseini
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Release Date: May 21, 2013

An unforgettable novel about finding a lost piece of yourself in someone else.

Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations.

In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most.

Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.

Taken from Goodreads

Start: 2/12/2014  |  End: 2/19/2014  |  Pages: 404  |  Rating: 4 Stars 

My Thoughts:

Wow. I have never read anything by Khaled Housseini, not even Kite Runner surprisingly, and I am not sure why. Why have I never picked up any of his books before?

If I recall correctly from book club, Kite Runner is supposed to focus on fathers and sons. A Thousand Splendid Suns is supposed to focus on mothers and daughters. And this book here focuses on siblings, which it does to some extent. It also features a multiple number of characters all related to each other somehow. 

I absolutely loved reading this book. Every chapter has a specific story to it, so it's kind of like a collection of short stories. Throughout the chapter, I always looked for a link that connected the characters to characters from another chapter. For example, there's a chapter on Abdullah and his sister Pari, then a chapter on Nila, Pari's stepmother. Later there's one on Nabi, who is the caretaker of Nila and her husband, and so on. Sometimes, the links were so subtle, that I caught myself thinking "Now where did this guy come from?"

I also want to mention what first dragged me in was the separation of Abdullah and his sister. The prologue hinted at this fact, and also foreshadowed the theme of all these short stories. What exactly makes a good person? Are you a bad person for doing that one thing? I know if I knew someone that sold their child, I would immediately think that person was horrible. But what happens if it's the best for that child?

Honestly, I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WOULD DO!
Why did this novel have to be so good?! Like sure it didn't make me cry as much as in The Fault of Our Stars, but tears were shed.

SPOILER! Highlight at own risk :)
For everyone that's already read the book: I CANNOT believe that Pari and Abdullah finally reunited at the end of the book, but he ended up having Alzheimer's! And now he will never actually know that he reunited with her. I am super mad about this. I really wanted a happy ending, but I kind of understand why it couldn't have been one.
Here are some quotes that destroyed me:

“I learned that the world didn't see the inside of you, that it didn't care a whit about the hopes and dreams, and sorrows, that lay masked by skin and bone. It was as simple, as absurd, and as cruel as that.” 

“Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly.” 

“All good things in life are fragile and easily lost”

“You say you felt a presence, but I only sensed an absence. A vague pain without a source. I was like a patient who cannot tell the doctor where it hurts, only that it does.”

Everyone needs to read this.

If you do, you will understand what I mean by everything being connected.

4 stars. Go read it. Now. 

Seriously, this is an amazing novel that is popular for a reason. It explains life realistically, and also how everyone is connected. It doesn't focus on the Taliban, or history in general. Just on people and their lives.